Leigh Ann DiFusco

Bio

Leigh Ann DiFusco, PhD, RN, is a Supporting Promising Academic Researchers (SPAR) Fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Penn School of Nursing and the Penn Injury Science Center, and an Affiliate Research Scientist at CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention. She is also an Associate Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on promoting healthy behaviors among adolescents with chronic health conditions, with a particular emphasis on reducing risky behaviors that impact long-term health and safety outcomes.

Dr. DiFusco brings two decades of experience as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in perioperative services and cardiology at a freestanding children’s hospital. This clinical foundation shaped her commitment to studying the physiological impact of risky health behaviors among adolescents, particularly those with congenital heart disease (CHD). Her current projects examine barriers and facilitators to safe driving in adolescents with CHD, as part of a broader effort to understand health behaviors during key developmental transitions.

She earned her MS in Nursing and Healthcare Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Delaware.